Since its inception in 2011, Anywhere Festival has become a globally unique immersive experience that gives people the chance to experience the performing arts across Brisbane and surrounding areas in anywhere but a traditional theatre.
From the climate cabaret of ‘Eco-Worrier’ at The Wilderness Society, to the comedy of 'Cherry' at Hip Hops Brewers, and even the immersive wonderment of 'The Starting Zone' at GabbaXchange, this year’s edition promises to be just as big and as bold as ever.
There’s a certain je ne sais quoi to Anywhere Festival that its Director, Paul Osuch, says is driving its expansion and daring year after year. “The thing that’s doing it is that every time, people look at it and go ‘okay, this idea of seeing shows in weird but not so weird locations’, it still keeps appealing,” Paul says. “People are always looking for permission or an excuse to go to places.”
“This festival gives people a chance to discover places and discover shows separately. Possibly they wouldn’t actually go and see this particular show, or they might not necessarily go to a venue or have a reason to go there – when you put them together, all of a sudden it creates this new thing that’s all new and you don’t know quite what you’re going to expect.”
'Eco-Worrier'
There remain festivals that do bits of what Anywhere offers, with parts of the programme with immersive works in an unusual location, Paul noting Melbourne’s Next Wave festival as one such event. But Anywhere Festival gives people licence to expect the unexpected, to witness the weird and wonderful in areas that are often left untouched in their daily lives. “I think that’s something we forget about with live performance,” Paul says, “people will spend time going to places they don’t normally spend their time going.”
This year’s event notes a rediscovery of locations that “to people’s knowledge may have fallen to the wayside”. These include venues that are featured as unusual or would have been popular in their heyday. “There’s a building where all the hairdresser training [took place]. That building, could possibly be getting knocked down for redevelopment in the next six months to a year. Yet there are so many people that have a connection with this space, that came to do their training here, or came as university students to get a free haircut.
“For this kind of space to be completely rediscoverable, for people to come and see a show, I think that’s one of the things that really connects people to what’s happened in the past. That’s an example of a space whose purpose has completely changed, but so many people have a connection to it, but no reason to come here anymore.”
'Cherry'
We hear so frequently, not just in Brisbane but in major cities countrywide, of revered and renowned venues having to close to make way for things as redevelopment. If there is scope or interest in repurposing these older venues that they may be used in future as alternative platforms for the performing arts, does Paul think there’s hope for saving them? “It’s a huge thing where something like what I consider to be the holy grail, something where we’re able to come up with an easy way for it to be done for any real estate agent or developer.”
“Anybody that has property sitting there not doing anything, we can go ‘cool, we know this space is sitting there for a month, can you let us use this space?’ There are key people that understand that and have gone, ‘yes, take the space and do what you want with it, do your thing’.”
Paul believes that if a way can be established to raise a profile for desolate or unused spaces, that local councils could begin an initiative for temporary reciprocal arrangements to be put in place to give the arts scene a boost. “It’s actually quite easy, but we’ve got to get the word out there; if you got a space just sitting there and it’s not doing anything, for a couple of weeks, a month, two months, we’ve got artists who can use it as a performance space, whether it’s [for] a performance or as a space where they can create some new work. That’s a huge thing.
'The Starting Zone'
“I think there would be so much more activity happening. [Property holders and performers] would be given an opportunity to raise their profile – usually done through council and government – so it gives people an incentive, and it makes it so much easier to give the artist a space to use in the meantime.”
It would, indeed be a great opportunity for artists, just like the ones who appear at this year’s Anywhere Festival. This year sees a mix of back-by-popular-demand performers and new acts. “One of the issues artists have is they come along and do a show, do it once, then find it hard to get it into another theatre or performance space. So, a lot of what we want to do, we want artists to know that every year they can come back with new projects or a reprise of what they’ve done before.
“An example of that is Act React – they have a whole bunch of shows like 'Titanic' or 'Speed The Movie, The Play', where they hop on a bus and the lead character is played by an audience member. They’re a great example of an act who keeps coming back. [This year] they’ve got 'The Importance of Being Wasted', in fact a show that was done at a previous Anywhere Festival.
“If the show has legs, we keep saying to artists, ‘don’t move on to the next thing’. There are so many people that haven’t seen the work [and] if it’s good, we’re happy to put it on again and see people do it.”
Anywhere Festival Brisbane is on from 4-21 May.
